Even the guys knew this was a dumb movie. In fact, there had been agreement among them that the only way to see a movie like this—whether at a drive-in, in a regular theater, or at home—was drunk. Which led to a discussion that not only would they try to sneak a person into the drive-in, but some beer, too.
Thing was, this was a milestone piled on top of a milestone. Not only was this the last night for the Constellation, it was the end of the academic year at Thackeray College, which Derek had been attending for four years, and was now leaving. For what, he had no clue. He had no job prospects, other than maybe working for his dad again, cutting lawns, planting shrubs, trimming hedges. Did he go to college for four years to run a leaf blower? Even his dad didn’t want that for him. And yet, there were worse things than working alongside his father.
For this one night, he wouldn’t think about his job future, or a couple of other things that had been weighing heavily on him.
The first was the death of a friend, just about the most senseless thing ever. This guy, he comes to college, goes to class, writes essays, tries out for some school plays, he’s just doing his thing like everybody else, and then one night campus security shoots him in the head while he’s supposedly trying to rape somebody.
Derek still hadn’t been able to get his head around it.
But then there was the other thing. Even bigger.
Derek was a father.
He had a goddamned kid.
A son named Matthew.
The news hadn’t come as a shock just to him. Even the mother was surprised, which sounded kind of weird, but it was a pretty weird, fucked-up story, and Derek still didn’t know all the details. He’d known that she was pregnant, but had believed the baby died at birth. Turned out not to be that way. He’d talked to her—Marla was her name—a few times since finding out the baby was alive, been over to visit her with his father in tow, and he was still kind of feeling his way through this, trying to sort out just what his responsibilities were.
“Hello?”
“Huh?” Derek said.
It was Canton Schultz, standing next to his four-door Nissan, the driver’s door open. Flanking him were Derek’s other friends from Thackeray, George Lydecker and Tyler Gross.
“We just took a vote,” Tyler said.
“What?”
“While you were off in La-La land, daydreaming, we took a vote,” said George. “You’re it.”
“I’m what?”
“You’re the one going into the trunk.”
“No way. I don’t want to go into the trunk.”
“Well, tough shit,” said Canton. “We’ve been standing around here talking about it, and you had nothing to say, so we made a decision. Thing is, it’s a very important job, being the guy in the trunk, because you’re the one protecting the beer.”
“Fuck it, fine,” Derek said. “But I’m not getting in now. It’s a ten-minute drive from here. We’ll pull over when we’re almost there. Then I’ll get in the back for a couple of minutes till we get inside.”
The thing was, the trunk was very much a place he did not want to be. He didn’t want to be cooped up in there for two minutes, let alone ten. Back when Derek was seventeen, while hiding in the basement crawlspace of a friend’s house, he’d had to listen while three people were murdered.
And hold his breath so the killer didn’t find him, too.
It was a big story in Promise Falls at the time. Prominent lawyer, his wife and son, all executed. For a while there, the police even wondered if Derek had done it, but they got the killer in the end, and everything worked out, so long as you didn’t count the fact that Derek was pretty much scarred for life.
Okay, maybe not for life. He’d managed to move on, pull his life together, go to school, make friends. His parents splitting up had actually hit him harder. But it didn’t mean he was happy to jump into a car trunk.
Derek was not a fan of confined spaces.
But he wasn’t a fan of looking like a wuss, either, which was why he’d proposed getting in just before their arrival at the drive-in. Everyone agreed that was reasonable. So, after putting a case of beer into the trunk, they piled into the car. Canton behind the wheel, George shotgun, and Derek and Tyler in the backseat.
It was already dark, and it would be after eleven by the time they got to the Constellation. The first feature would probably already be half over, and they weren’t interested in it anyway, since it was always something for kids. Not that a Transformers movie wasn’t for kids, but the opening flick would most likely be a cartoon that wasn’t all that scary. And even if they ended up late for the Transformers flick, how hard would it be to catch up? And before long, they’d be too drunk to care.